Tag: Catholic

On Sunday 9 March at St Mary's Cathedral, the Archdiocese of Sydney welcomed a record 384 catechumens and candidates at the annual Rite of Election—a 30 per cent increase in converts from the previous year.

Zimbabwe-born Tafara Jakopo was completely career-focussed when he moved to Sydney from Perth for work in 2018. Shortly after walking into his nearest church, he experienced a spiritual and intellectual awakening that threw his career plans, and his whole life, into new light.

They may not be qualified teachers or theologians, but they bring the love of God to children every week and change thousands of lives for eternity. A total 1400 years of generous service by 54 long-time catechists was recognised at the annual archdiocesan catechist Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on 10 November. For some, evangelising to the young is very much a family affair.

Internal Family Systems is a new approach to psychological wellbeing and trauma therapy taking the mental health community by storm. US Catholic psychologist Dr Greg Bottaro says the approach aligns well with the Catholic understanding of the human person but could be “dangerous” for some.

Meet the five generations of women at St John the Baptist parish in Bonnyrigg who have put their family and faith first for nearly a century: from 98-year-old Giuseppina Natale down to eight-month-old cherub Valentina Kristan.

At St Joseph’s Church in Rockdale, dozens of families travel from across Sydney for Masses celebrated in Urdu and Hindi, the native tongue of many Pakistani and Indian Catholics. Beginning in June at their request and supported by parish priest Fr Yacub Barkat, the Mass is an initiative of young families who wanted to share their faith and cultural traditions.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP joined Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv in paying tribute to the second Bishop of Parramatta, Bishop Emeritus Kevin Manning, following his death aged 90 on 15 July.

Fr Michael Meagher and parishioners at St Brendan’s and St Michael’s in Sydney’s inner west are dreaming big and putting plans in place to support the historic parish as a centre of evangelisation well into the future.

Catholics in South-Western Sydney have taken their religious “virtues” to the sporting field as parish took on parish at the inaugural Virtus Games.

In my parish there are no early morning weekday Masses, which I need in order to get to work. Nor are there evening Masses. What is more, there are often no Masses on Mondays or Saturday mornings. Is there anything that can be done about this?

Local secular Dominican James Lu says the order is going through a period of renewal, with increasing numbers of lay people attracted to living out the order’s charism in community with each other.

With the national Mass attendance rate now at just over eight per cent, the National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR) will soon commence a study of reported reasons why people who continue to affiliate as Catholics do not participate regularly in Sunday Mass.